Madness from overseas

Posted by David Hardy · 1 July 2007 01:16 PM

Story here. A British shopkeeper pursues shoplifters, two of them attack him and one of them kicks him in the groin, he fights back. The shoplifters are given "penalty notices," the shopkeeper is charged with criminal assault and fined.

“The act was aggravated by the fact you kicked the victim on the ground. We feel it has been mitigated because you acted in self defence.”

Shopkeeper fined £250 for hitting back against thieves
Simon de Bruxelles

A shopkeeper has been fined £250 and given a criminal record because he fought back when he was attacked by shoplifters.

Jacob Smyth chased three youths out of his hardware shop in Penzance, Cornwall, when he was set upon. When he was kicked in the groin by one of the hooded youths who had stolen cans of spray paint Mr Smyth hit back.

Police issued fixed penalty tickets to the shoplifters but charged Mr Smyth and a colleague with assault.

Yesterday he pleaded guilty to assault at Truro Magistrates’ Court. He claimed after the hearing that he had been advised to plead guilty because otherwise he could have faced a six month prison sentence.

I guess the Marquis De Queensbury Rules must be encoded into Brit criminal law. The man violated a standing 8-count, for Christ's sake, of course he's guilty!

BTW, David, if you think that this is extraordinary, just put on a police badge and go out on patrol. Every time a cop has to use any physical force to effect an arrest, his/her entire line of force-continuum conflict is judged like that Brit shopkeeper's was.